The Learn Tracker
...life-long learning: structured, organized, searchable...

My name is Edward Tanguay.
I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters in Education, and am currently working as a web developer in Berlin, Germany.

I watch over 200 college-level MOOC lectures per year in subjects such as history , psychology, science, religion, art, philosophy, and IT development in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian, and record my notes here.
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edward [at] tanguay.info

Learning Activity by Month:

The primary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to build a web site which serves as one place to record the notes of everything that I am learning from MOOC classes, to foreign languages, to useful code examples and technical how-to notes, so that I not only have an overview of what I have learned, but can search and recall these notes at any time.

The secondary goal of this Learn Tracker project is to work together with companies, universities, and MOOC providers to build software that allows employees, students, and learners to record what they are learning in an efficient way so that it serves not only as (1) a record of what they have learned, but also (2) a place for them to review and search what they have learned.

Since January 2013, I have watched and recorded notes on over 300 MOOC lectures from over 30 different courses in both English and French, and have watched and recorded notes and flashcards on over 50 foreign language videos in Italian, French and Spanish. (I am curently still adding notes I took from 2013 and plan to be caught up by the end of January 2014.

September 2013 Learn Certificate
Watched and took notes on 24 college lectures:
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, University of Toronto
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Freud's influence on psychology as a discipline was to fork a non-scientific branch
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he was exposing his ideas in the Victorian Era
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a time when men were gentlemen and women were ladies
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there was a properness as to how things were supposed to happen
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the topics sex and aggression were not talked about, they were not polite, not the sort of things people discussed... view all notes
Monday, September 2, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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since large scale cooperation between sapiens is based on stories, the way that people cooperate and build their societies can be changed pretty quickly by changing the stories
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1789 in France, in a short period of time, the people switched the story from the sovereign right of kings to the sovereign right of people
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genetic evolution based on physical changes is very slow, cultural evolution based on changing stories is fast, a few years is sufficient for fundamental changes in human life and abilities. Ever since Homo sapiens have developed sophisticated language and thus the ability to organize themselves in very large groups, they have accelerated their cultural evolution and thus outstripped all other human and animal species in ability to cooperate and accumulate power
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archaic humans and animals experience changes based on changes in DNA, not on cultural changes
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two species of chimpanzees... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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19th century
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traditional roles
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almost all women were in traditional roles
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womens' role may have been just as important as mens' but from a legal point of view, women were subordinate
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lack of rights to vote... view all notes
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the cognitive changes that took place around 50,000 years ago enabled humans to create and believe in stories
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this helped them organize themselves in groups much larger than 150
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humans used their imagination not only to adapt themselves to the world as it is, but to create new worlds
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what was physical, cognitive, and spiritual life like for people 40,000 years ago?
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the vast majority of people like us who had our full cognitive abilities, lived as hunters and gatherers: the lifestyles of peasant, shepherd, office worker, factory worker, all appear extremely late in the human history... view all notes
Friday, September 6, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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a common term for the time around 1930 was the "inter-war period"
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we're so conscious of WWII coming, that we tend to look at the time of history around 1930 almost like a brief interval between wars, some historians even write of it as a truce period
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the reality is that life and society during the 20s and 30s was not so linear and destined for another World War as we might think, yet it was a time in history in which the world economic and international relations were thoroughly reorganizing themselves and could have gone many way. The world of 1930 was a broken world that that was being reconstructed on almost every corner. Unfortunately, with the cement not dry yet, and it was about to be buffeted by a terrific storm.
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the state of the Great Powers
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America... view all notes
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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mental and spiritual lives of pre-agricultural-revolution humans
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it's a lot harder to know what ancient people believed than what they ate, especially with no records of writing
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animist beliefs
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it is generally believed that ancient peoples had animist beliefs
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Latin "anima" = soul or spirit... view all notes
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
•
there is not sufficient evidence to determine if in the Stone Age people had private property, nuclear families and monogamous relationships
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we do, however, have some evidence of what political and social life was like
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Sungir burial site
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28,000 to 30,000 years old
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discovered in 1955... view all notes
Monday, September 9, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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ways in which humans related to other animals and plants and became the most important factor in the ecology of planet earth long before the agricultural revolution
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until the rise of Homo sapiens, all other human species lived on the Afroasian land mass
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no other human species has the ability to cross the open sea or large expanses
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plants evolved in each of these places in each of the areas of the earth, thus planet earth was divided into separate ecosystems
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Homo sapiens were the ones who began to form connections between these ecosystems shortly after the cognitive revolution... view all notes
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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modern capitalism was a system created in the late 1800s
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standardized money built around the gold standard
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gold standard
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demand = how much we can buy, how much money is available
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if you have a gold standard system, then demand is tied to the amount of gold available... view all notes
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE ANCIENT GREEKS, Wesleyan University
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Theseus
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mythical founder-king of Athens
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son of Aegeus (goat-man) and Poseidon
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his story is told by Plutarch
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visit to Crete... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, University of Toronto
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Freud's clinical and subliminal focus on human nature created a fork in the disciple of psychology
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psychology had been developing as a scientific discipline which studied the conscious mind
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Freud shaped it toward the study of pathology, of mental disorders with an emphasis on the subconscious mind
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later Freud's theories developed more into theories on human behavior, but there was a backlash from psychologists who felt that Freud's theories couldn't be tested
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how did psychologists react to Freud... view all notes
Friday, September 13, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the first globally influential event that humans achieved was cause the ecological catastrophe in Australia 50,000 to 40,000 years ago
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the second globally influential event was a similar ecological catastrophe on the American continents
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humans arrived about 14,000 BC
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arrived on foot while sea levels were low enough that a land bridge connected north Eastern Siberia with northwestern Alaska
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they were probably in pursuit of large game animals such as mammoths and reindeer which migrated back and forth along this land bridge... view all notes
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EXPLORING BEETHOVEN'S PIANO SONATAS, Curtis Institute of Music
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our response to Beethoven's sonatas
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music undeniably has an ineffable quality that can't be explained, but a large part of how we respond to it has to do with how it fulfills or confounds our expectations
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based on our culture
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its culture
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effect the structure, harmony in particular has on us... view all notes
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the life of farmers and peasants was quite difficult compared to the way of life of previous Homo sapiens
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as humans slowly became dependent on wheat, there is much that it did not offer us:
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it's very clear that wheat did not offer us a better diet
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humans are omnivorous, they survive by eating a very wide variety of foodstuffs
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grains like wheat made up only a small fraction of the human diet before the agricultural revolution... view all notes
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Sapiens who lived 30,000 years ago had all the physical characteristics we had and so were capable of being as intelligent, curious and sensitive as we are
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they probably had their own share of religious movements, artistic movements, and political struggles
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we don't know much about these events for lack of evidence
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the agricultural revolution
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transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture... view all notes
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INITIATION À LA PROGRAMMATION EN JAVA, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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une variable
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une zone en mémoire qui possède un nom dans laquelle on va pouvoir stocker une valeur
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si on a une valeur qui doit utilisé à plusieurs reprises, alors une variable doit être créé
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des règles des variables
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chaque variable a une type particulier, quel genre de donnée exactement qu'on veut utiliser... view all notes
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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the agricultural revolution occurred very gradually
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a collection of attempts to improve life resulted in a more difficult life for most humans
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why did humans make these choices to make their lives more difficult
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it was a miscalculation, as in other times in history
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they were unable to foresee the full consequences of their choices... view all notes
Monday, September 23, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
THE MODERN WORLD: GLOBAL HISTORY SINCE 1760, University of Virginia
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Japan in early 1930s: a stalemate of two conflicting ideals
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1. with Japan's enormous modernization, many people appealing for
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liberal ideas
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international cooperation
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2. also a national conservative faction... view all notes
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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impact of the agricultural revolution on humans
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led to far more complex human societies
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foragers lived in small bands of a few dozen individuals
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farmers and peasants lived their lives in towns of hundreds, thousands and ultimately millions of people working on a daily basis towards common goals
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a reason for this growth was that agriculture could support far more people... view all notes
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
L'ART DES STRUCTURES 1 : CâBLES ET ARCS, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
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gravitation universelle
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les forces qui agissent, agissent toujours selon l'axe qui réunit les centres de gravité
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la constante G est appelée constante de gravitation universelle.
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il montre comment on calcule la force qu'exerce la Terre sur le Soleil ou
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réciproquement la force qu'exerce le Soleil sur la Terre... view all notes
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY, University of Toronto
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approaches to seeking truth about the world
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rationalists
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knowing by thinking
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Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz
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you can come to understand something well enough and deeply enough simply by thinking about it and discussing it with others... view all notes
Friday, September 27, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
L'ART DES STRUCTURES 1 : CâBLES ET ARCS, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
•
quels types de charges peuvent agir sur les structures
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gravitation
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précipitations
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des circulations de courants et les vents
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séismes... view all notes
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
EXPLORING BEETHOVEN'S PIANO SONATAS, Curtis Institute of Music
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while Bach was a reference point for almost every composer after him, he represents an end of an era
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Haydn
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chronologically, Haydn marks a new beginning
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father of the forms that came to dominate the classical era
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we see the place of the composer in society undergo an evolution... view all notes
Monday, September 30, 2013
Watched and took notes on MOOC lecture:
A HISTORY OF THE WORLD SINCE 1300, Princeton University
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triangular system of the Atlantic world
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Africa, Europe and the Americas
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new models of colonies which augment this circulation
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exploitation of labor and natural resources
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this also began to change the relation between Europe and the rest of Eurasia... view all notes
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